In a first, external affairs minister (EAM) Dr S Jaishankar will be on a three-day visit to the archipelago nation of Fiji to attend the 12th World Hindi Conference which starts on Wednesday.
The conference will be inaugurated by Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and Dr Jaishankar, as per the MEA.
The conference is being hosted by the governments of India and Fiji, the South Pacific nation which hosts a significant number of Hindi speakers.
Experts say Fiji has been chosen for the conference because of the identity of its people and its shared history with India. The Pacific country hosts a sizeable number of Indian-origin people and the common language among them is Hindi.
Around 150 years ago, 60,000 indentured Indian labourers (known as Girmitiyas) were shipped by the British colonial rulers to Fiji to work in the sugarcane plantations. These workers were from different states of India and they spoke different languages and dialects and Hindi served as a common language anchor.
This will be Dr Jaishankar’s first visit to Fiji. Dr Jaishankar would lead the first foreign ministerial delegation to visit Fiji after the formation of a new government in 2022.
Apart from his engagements at the conference, external affairs minister Dr Jaishankar will also hold bilateral meetings with the new Fijian leadership.
The EAM’s visit comes close on the heels of the first high-level visit to India by Fijian deputy prime minister Prof. Biman Prasad last week.
On his way back to India, EAM Dr Jaishankar will make a stopover in Sydney, Austria for a day on February 18. “This would be his third visit as an EAM to Australia since February 2022,” said the ministry of external affairs (MEA).
During his visit to Australia, Dr Jaishankar will hold meetings with the country’s leadership in Sydney. He would also attend the ‘Raisina at Sydney Conference’ dialogue event which is being held for the first time in Australia.
Meanwhile, his deputy, V Muraleedharan has already departed for Fiji to review final preparations for the conference. On Monday, he made a halt in Sydney en route to Fiji and held a “productive discussion with Australia-India Business Council national chair, Jodi McKay and some other members.
In a tweet, MoS Muraleedharan said that he “discussed ways to foster trade and business relationship in the growing bilateral space” with the Australian business persons.
The World Hindi Conference, to be held between February 15 and February 17, aims to promote the Hindi language across the world and seeks enhanced cooperation among nations where Hindi is spoken.
Several nations are sending their delegations to Fiji for the conference, including neighbouring Sri Lanka and Mauritius.
The 11th edition of the conference was held in Mauritius – which is home to more than 15,000 Hindi speakers – in 2018.